Recommendations of the Editorial team
Bruce Springsteen originally wanted to use the purely acoustic songs that were later published as “Nebraska”, only used as a demos for the E Street Band. In 1982 he recorded with the band at the Power Station Studio in New York City versions of most songs. These so-called “Electric Nebraska” tracks have never been heard-not even on bootlegs. That changes now. On October 17th, the new box set “Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition” will be released A week before the Springsteen-Biopic “Deliver Me From Nowhere” comes to cinemas.
New box set with live appearance and unpublished songs
The “Electric Nebraska” disc contains seven band versions of the songs and a special highlight: a hard, guitar-heavy electrical version of “Born in the USA”, which was originally acoustic during the “Nebraska” sessions. The song – only with Max Weinberg on the drums and Garry Tallent on the bass – is now available in the stream. “We left out the keyboards and practically played as a trio,” said Springsteen in a press release. “It was a kind of punk rockabilly. We wanted to bring Nebraska into the electrical age.”
The four CDs and a Blu-ray set, which can be pre-ordered from now on, also contains acoustic outtakes (including “Child Bride”, which later became “Working on the Highway”) as well as audio and video of a brand new solo live performance of the complete album, recorded in the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey. A new remaster version of “Nebraska” is also included. Among the outtakes there are never previously belonged to Bootle’s songs such as “Gun in Every Home” and “On the Prowl”. At that time, the latter played Springsteen occasionally in clubs on the Jersey Shore.
In the press release, Springsteen said that his again playing the songs reminded him of their special effect. “I think when playing these songs again for the film, it became clear to me,” said Springsteen. “I wrote many narrative plates, but these songs on ‘Nebraska’ have a kind of magic.”
E Street band was excited about the recordings
The E Street Band itself was also excited to finally hear its band versions. “I die after hearing the studio recordings,” said keyboardist Roy Bittan in the “Rolling Stone” podcast “Music Now” last year. “You have been slipped to us so far. Maybe Bruce will bring it out at some point.”
“I remember the sessions, it was very in the e-street band style-similar to how we play the songs today, and it was great,” said Weinberg at the time. Producer Jon Landau suggested to listen to Bob Dylans John Wesley Harding. “Bruce seemed to go in this direction. There were shots with brooms on drums, minimalistic. But also rocking versions of some Nebraska songs.”
From myth to the movie
At the beginning of the year, Springsteen had claimed to Rolling-Stone reporter Andy Greene that the “Electric Nebraska” sessions did not exist. A month later he corrected himself by SMS: “Only for information-I checked in the archive: There is an ‘Electric Nebraska’ album, but not with all songs.”
“Deliver Me From Nowhere” starts in the cinema on October 24th – with Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen and Jeremy Strong as manager Jon Landau. The film tells the history of the creation of “Nebraska”. “Bruce was inspired by a lot at the time, but for a while he didn’t know where this record should go,” said White recently the Associated Press. “He didn’t even know if it would be an album. Hopefully you try to take this feeling of artistic curiosity with me. That was very understandable for me.”